If the business analysis is well understood by all stakeholders and the project team, the benefits of developing a
Business Entity Model are significantly diminished, however, this is rarely the case. Where this occurs, the Business
Entity Model may be sparsely defined. However, it is usually wise to develop a complete model to improve understanding
of the way the business activities work with and use the business entities.
One can choose to develop an "incomplete" Business Entity Model, focusing on explaining "things" important only to
a particular business domain or activity in question. Such a model does not include the complete information content of
the "system". This model is useful for providing a common basis with which concepts can be clarified and defined, while
limiting scope and effort. Core entities should be included along with business entities having direct relationships to
the core to provide context.
As-Is Model vs. To-Be Model
If the purpose of the business modeling effort is to do business re-engineering, one should consider building two
variants of the Business Entity Model: one that shows the current situation and one that shows the envisaged new target
situation.
The current versions of the Business Entity Model is simply an inventory of existing data models, but brought up to a
(conceptual) high-level. The entities of the model are not described in any detail. Typically brief descriptions are
sufficient. The target version of the model requires most of the work. The current data and relationships need to be
reconsidered and aligned with the new business strategy and goals.
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